The origins of the all-inclusive holiday

Holidaymakers arrived at the first Club Med resort on the Spanish island of Majorca in the summer of 1950.

Founded by the Belgian water polo player Gérard Blitz, Club Méditerranée offered a new kind of post-war holiday built around the idea that leisure should be simple, sociable and accessible.

The facilities were basic at first. Guests slept in huts and shared communal meals. But the company's all-inclusive approach proved enormously popular and helped change the way millions of people holiday around the world.

In 2020, Lucy Burns spoke to Pierre-Xavier Bécret whose parents worked at that first resort and remained part of the Club Med story for many years.

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(Photo: Holidaymakers relaxing at Guadeloupe's Club Med in Canada. Credit: Boris Spremo/Toronto Star via Getty Images)